Marel to sell Stork Food and Dairy Systems
The company said it had reached an agreement to off-load Stork’s food and dairy unit – excluding its operations in Spain – after deciding the outfit was non-core to its business. Marel said it would incur a loss of €16.4m “due the write off of goodwill and revalued assets” as a result of the sale.
No other financial details were available.
The move will allow it to focus on the profitability and growth of its central fish, meat and poultry processing segments, as well as its further processing operation, said the firm.
Stork Food & Dairy Systems is involved with the development, production and supply of processing and filling lines for dairy, juice, and liquid food products. In 2009, the unit (excluding its operations in Spain) accounted for 11 per cent of Marel’s revenues, with a turnover of €61m, said the company.
Positive step
A company spokesman told FoodProductionDaily.com that negotiations were also in progress for the sale of it subsidiary Carnitech, which it has estimated will lead to a loss of €8m. The company hoped to complete the divestment as soon as possible but could not give any date.
“Marel’s strategy since the merger with Stork Food Systems in May 2008 has been to increase the focus on the company’s core business,” said CEO Theo Hoen. “The operations of Stork Food and Dairy Systems fall outside that framework and the unit has therefore been defined as a non-core business.”
The company chief said he saw the sale as a positive step and said Stork had gone trough a successful refocusing and renewal of its product portfolio since the takeover 18 months ago.
The sell-off was announced yesterday as the company posted a Q4 2009 net loss of €23m and a full year net loss of €23.7m - resulting from the write downs to Stork Food and Dairy Systems and Carnitech.
